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The right king in the wrong monarchy?
Assuming that democracy is the best available political system for the improvement of the human condition, a brief examination of six major aspects that measure the democratic spirit of a political system provide a good insight into the state of Morocco's democratisation process.
1 Constitutionalism and representatives
Morocco boasts that it has one of the oldest monarchies in the world (twelve centuries old). Despite the various shortcomings of monarchies in non-democratic societies, Moroccan history does not feature any long periods as dark as those of the absolute monarchs of Europe.
Moroccan monarchs often ruled in consultation with a quasi-independent religious body of scholars and tribal bodies in the various regions of the country, bodies that worked as representatives of the tribe. This old aspect of consultation disappeared with the idea of the centrist modern nation state. The inability to adapt old local political customs to the modern institutions installed with colonialism have left the country divided into two systems that are still hard to distinguish: a traditional and a modern one. This makes Morocco a monarchy with a constitution rather than a constitutional monarchy à la UK, Belgium or the constitutional monarchies of Scandinavia.
I identify three modern constitutional stages in Morocco's history: 1) failed constitutionalism (1908–1972), during which the state and the king could be described as one body; 2) limited constitutionalism (1972–1992), during which the king shared powers; and 3) transitory constitutionalism (2011–present), in which the king shares more of his powers without letting go of all of them in an arrangement that could be said to constitute a system of "semi-constitutional monarchy."
2 Elections
It follows from the above that the maker(s) of law are not people, but the monarchy, despite the fact that elections have been taking place in the country since the 1960s. Unlike most Arab countries, Morocco has since its independence in 1956, opted for political representation and participation of the people through direct local and legislative elections. This was interrupted – in the 1970s in particular – by various failed military coup d'états against the monarchy. However, the right to elect a representative is not bolstered by other rights or principles of democracy, which makes it unfruitful. This is explained by the points that follow.
3 Civil liberties
Compared with the rest of the Arab world, Moroccans enjoy a remarkable range of freedoms. Unlike the common perception of liberties across the region, the problem is not only women's rights, but all citizens' rights; if all citizens enjoy their rights, women will find it easier than is commonly reported in the media, despite the fact that they are a more vulnerable gender.
While some socio-cultural markers still hinder the enlargement of the range of liberties of thought, it is the right to information and critical education that affect the way the people express their political choices at the ballot box. While the margin of civil liberties is already remarkable, the people are not well-informed. High rates of illiteracy make the liberties enjoyed vulnerable to mis-information, which affects election results and profound political participation when discussing the strategic interests of the country.
4 The rule of law
The country suffers from a severe lack of the application of the principle of the rule of law. Despite its various constitutions, including the current promising one, the state has not managed to match rights with duties as enshrined in the constitution and different laws. Laxity dominates. Lack of accountability, favouritism and deep-rooted corruption in all sectors weakens the country's general aspirations of democracy (as a safeguard of liberties, equality and social justice).
5 The judiciary
Point number 4 implies that the judiciary cannot be free in a context where the rule of law is weak, favouritism is practiced and corruption is dominant. The project to reform the judiciary is still being discussed; civil society protests about the abuse of power have increased, but that is not enough.
6 An organised opposition
Given this bleak picture, what is the opposition doing? The opposition, like the government coalition, is fragmented. Before the Arab Spring, the opposition was led by the Socialist Party (the current al ittihad al ishtiraqi), which has fought for civil liberties, democratisation and constitutional democracy since the late 1950s. It was co-opted and entered a coalition government in 1997, the result of which did not live up to expectations.
From the late 1990s until 2010, the moderate Islamist PJD party emerged as the major voice of opposition to corruption, slow economic growth and slow political institutional change. With the Arab Spring events, the PJD won the elections of 25 November 2011 under a reformed constitution adopted on 1 July 2011. The electoral system does not allow a majority win, which obliges the leading party to enter into coalitions.
The first coalition government failed after less than two years, and a new one was formed. It comprised parties that had been strongly opposed to each other during the election campaigns. It is a coalition to save the face of this transitional phase in the country. As to the opposition, it is now composed mostly of parties that have been in government for decades (hizb al istiqlal and al ittihad al ishtiraqi) or by a new party that has emerged in the last few years (i.e. the PAM), and is viewed with scepticism by the other major parties for its closeness to the monarchy and what its opponents consider to be its hidden undemocratic agenda. Broadly speaking, the opposition has been tested in government before and achieved little; now, its voice in the opposition weighs very little, if anything at all.
These general notes demonstrate that Morocco still has a long way to go.
Representative democracy does not seem to have influenced the democratisation of the "deep state" – or the makhzen, as it is known in Moroccan political diction – which permeates all sectors. A highly disproportionate distribution of wealth, high rates of unemployment, a lack of decent housing, remarkable incapacities in public health services, increasing problems in the educational system, a high level of bureaucratisation and high rates of corruption compared with regional and international standards are clear signs that the reforms that have been initiated since 1999 in particular have not yet challenged the "deep state" structures.
At the same time, this does not mean that the head of the state, King Mohammed VI, is not democratic. The paradox in the country is that while the king seems super-active and reformist, it is his entourage, the makhzen, which has gained wealth and power in the decades since the colonial period, that appears unwilling to change power structures and wealth distribution.
The king could be described as the right king in the wrong monarchy – whereby by "the monarchy" here I mean the makhzen. The challenge then is this: how far can Moroccans depend on a reformist king and a corrupt entourage? Will they always be fortunate enough to have such a king? Are strong institutions that abide by the rule of law not the most secure path to take in order to truly realise the idea of Moroccan exceptionalism in the region?
Regional and international affairs certainly affect the process of change in the country. Current failed change in countries like Egypt, stagnation in relations with Algeria, the unsolved issue of Western Sahara, the complexity of the Syrian situation and its regional and international impacts affect the economy of the country and the level of political changes the stakeholders inside the country and outside it may allow.
In the light of these various internal and external challenges, the safest path for smooth democratic change requires that the king continues his reformist projects. The latter need support from civil society and the political parties that are ready to distance themselves from the makhzen for the public good. The road ahead is long and full of challenges.
Mohammed Hashas
© ResetDoc 2014
Editor: Aingeal Flanagan/Qantara.de


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Although the Manchus were not Han Chinese and were strongly resisted, especially in the south, they had assimilated a great deal of Chinese culture before conquering China Proper. Realizing that to dominate the empire they would have to do things the Chinese way, the Manchus retained many institutions of Ming and earlier Chinese derivation. They continued the Confucian court practices and temple rituals, over which the emperors had traditionally presided.
The Manchus continued the Confucian civil service system. Although Chinese were barred from the highest offices, Chinese officials predominated over Manchu officeholders outside the capital, except in military positions. The Neo-Confucian philosophy, emphasizing the obedience of subject to ruler, was enforced as the state creed. The Manchu emperors also supported Chinese literary and historical projects of enormous scope; the survival of much of China's ancient literature is attributed to these projects.
Ever suspicious of Han Chinese, the Qing rulers put into effect measures aimed at preventing the absorption of the Manchus into the dominant Han Chinese population. Han Chinese were prohibited from migrating into the Manchu homeland, and Manchus were forbidden to engage in trade or manual labor. Intermarriage between the two groups was forbidden. In many government positions a system of dual appointments was used--the Chinese appointee was required to do the substantive work and the Manchu to ensure Han loyalty to Qing rule.
The Qing regime was determined to protect itself not only from internal rebellion but also from foreign invasion. After China Proper had been subdued, the Manchus conquered Outer Mongolia (now the Mongolian People's Republic) in the late seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century they gained control of Central Asia as far as the Pamir Mountains and established a protectorate over the area the Chinese call Xizang but commonly known in the West as Tibet. The Qing thus became the first dynasty to eliminate successfully all danger to China Proper from across its land borders. Under Manchu rule the empire grew to include a larger area than before or since; Taiwan, the last outpost of anti-Manchu resistance, was also incorporated into China for the first time. In addition, Qing emperors received tribute from the various border states.
The chief threat to China's integrity did not come overland, as it had so often in the past, but by sea, reaching the southern coastal area first. Western traders, missionaries, and soldiers of fortune began to arrive in large numbers even before the Qing, in the sixteenth century. The empire's inability to evaluate correctly the nature of the new challenge or to respond flexibly to it resulted in the demise of the Qing and the collapse of the entire millennia-old framework of dynastic rule.
Data as of July 1987

subset: commoncrawl


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Advanced Search
Product Reviews
Five ways to fight the inevitable disk slowdown.
When you run Diskeeper, you'll see a screen with two panes. The top pane lists all of your drives that are available for defragmentation. The bottom pane looks like a spreadsheet without the vertical lines-this is the details pane. From here defragmenting your disk is simple. Just right-click the drive and select Defragment. Figure 1 shows the results.
Pros: Lots of useful added features Cons: Misses some files during defragmentation Verdict: Definitely one to consider
To schedule defragmentation you highlight the drive and, from the Action menu, select the Set It and Forget It menu; then, choose Disk Volume Scheduler. You can manually select the times you want the defragmentation process to run or you can choose Smart Scheduling, an innovative technique that allows Diskeeper to figure out just how often your disks need defragmenting. You can also schedule Boot Time defragmentation, which will defragment your system files (paging, MFT, directory consolidation). You can even control the priority that the process runs in by selecting Priority from the Action menu.
Another useful feature is Frag Guard, which runs as a service in the background to keep your system files defragmented at all times. Every time you write to the disk, Frag Guard will try to keep your MFT and paging files contiguous. To turn on this feature, just select Frag Guard from the Action menu and then enable it for the paging file and any volumes where you want to keep the master file tables defragmented (Figure 2).
I only ran into two problems. First, when I enabled Frag Guard, I noticed a small performance hit. It was well within acceptable levels but I did notice it. The second issue has been around for a while: Diskeeper is not as thorough as you might expect. Every time I ran Diskeeper, I had 11 fragmented files left over. I would have expected the software to defragment these files because they were not in use and they were not system files. No matter how many times I ran the process, the files remained fragmented. I have seen this behavior on other systems as well. The drive still gets sufficiently cleaned, though.
All things considered, this is a great piece of software. If you're in the market for a new defragmentation package, then you definitely need to consider Diskeeper.
About the Author
Joseph L. Jorden, MCSE, MCT, CCNA, CCDA is Chief Technical Officer for Dugger & Associates (www.Dugger-IT.com). He was one of the first 100 people to achieve the MCSE+I and one of the first 2,000 to become an MCSE under Windows 2000. Joseph frequently contributes to books from Sybex and various periodicals.
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Title 62.1. Waters of the State, Ports and Harbors
Chapter 6. Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission
§ 62.1-71. Form and terms of compact.
Whereas, a substantial part of the territory of each of the signatory states is situated within the drainage basin of the Ohio River;
Whereas, the rapid increase in the population of the various metropolitan areas situated within the Ohio drainage basin and the growth in industrial activity within that area have resulted in recent years in an increasingly serious pollution of the waters and streams within the said drainage basin, constituting a grave menace to the health, welfare, and recreational facilities of the people living in such basin, and occasioning great economic loss; and
Whereas, the control of future pollution and the abatement of existing pollution in the waters of said basin are of prime importance to the people thereof and can best be accomplished through the cooperation of the states situated therein, by and through a joint or common agency;
Now, therefore, the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia, do hereby covenant and agree as follows:
Article I.
Each of the signatory states pledges to each of the other signatory states faithful cooperation in the control of future pollution in and abatement of existing pollution from the rivers, streams, and waters in the Ohio River Basin which flow through, into or border upon any of such signatory states, and in order to effect such object agrees to enact any necessary legislation to enable each such state to police and maintain the waters of that basin in a satisfactory sanitary condition, available for safe and satisfactory use as public and industrial water supplies after reasonable treatment, suitable for recreational usage, capable of maintaining fish and other aquatic life, free from unsightly or malodorous nuisances due to floating solids or sludge deposits, and adaptable to such other uses as may be legitimate.
Article II.
The signatory states hereby create a district to be known as the "Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation District," hereinafter called the district, which shall embrace all territory within the signatory states, the water in which flows ultimately into the Ohio River, or its tributaries.
Article III.
The signatory states hereby create the "Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission," hereinafter called the Commission, which shall be a body corporate, with the powers and duties set forth herein, and such additional powers as may be conferred upon it by subsequent action of the respective legislatures of the signatory states or by act or acts of the Congress of the United States.
Article IV.
The Commission shall consist of three commissioners from each state, each of whom shall be a citizen of the state from which he is appointed, and three commissioners representing the United States government. The commissioners from each state shall be chosen in the manner and for the terms provided by the laws of the state from which they shall be appointed, and any commissioner may be removed or suspended from office as provided by the law of the state from which he shall be appointed. The Commissioners representing the United States shall be appointed by the President of the United States, or in such other manner as may be provided by Congress. The Commissioners shall serve without compensation, but shall be paid their actual expenses incurred in and incident to the performance of their duties; but nothing herein shall prevent the appointment of an officer or employee of any state or of the United States government.
Article V.
The Commission shall elect from its number a chairman and vice-chairman, and shall appoint, and at its pleasure remove or discharge, such officers and legal, clerical, expert and other assistants as may be required to carry the provisions of this compact into effect, and shall fix and determine their duties, qualifications and compensation. It shall adopt a seal and suitable bylaws, and shall adopt and promulgate rules and regulations for its management and control. It may establish and maintain one or more offices within the district for the transaction of its business, and may meet at any time or place. One or more commissioners from a majority of the member states shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
The Commission shall submit to the governor of each state, at such time as he may request, a budget of its estimated expenditures, for such period as may be required by the laws of such state for presentation to the legislature thereof.
The Commission shall keep accurate books of account, showing in full its receipts and disbursements, and such books of account shall be open at any reasonable time to the inspection of such representatives of the respective signatory states as are duly constituted for that purpose.
On or before the first day of December of each year, the Commission shall submit to the respective governors of the signatory states a full and complete report of its activities for the preceding year.
The Commission shall not incur any obligations of any kind prior to the making of appropriations adequate to meet the same; nor shall the Commission pledge the credit of any of the signatory states, except by and with the authority of the legislature thereof.
Article VI.
It is recognized by the signatory states that no single standard for the treatment of sewage or industrial wastes is applicable in all parts of the district due to such variable factors as size, flow, location, character, self-purification, and usage of waters within the district. The guiding principle of this compact shall be that pollution by sewage or industrial wastes originating within a signatory state shall not injuriously affect the various uses of the interstate waters as hereinbefore defined.
All sewage from municipalities or other political subdivisions, public or private institutions, or corporations, discharged or permitted to flow into these portions of the Ohio River and its tributary waters which form boundaries between, or are contiguous to, two or more signatory states, or which flow from one signatory state into another signatory state, shall be so treated, within a time reasonable for the construction of the necessary works, as to provide for substantially complete removal of settleable solids and the removal of not less than forty-five per centum of the total suspended solids; provided that, in order to protect the public health or to preserve the waters for other legitimate purposes, including those specified in Article I, in specific instances such higher degree of treatment shall be used as may be determined to be necessary by the Commission after investigation, due notice and hearing.
All industrial wastes discharged or permitted to flow into the aforesaid waters shall be modified or treated, within a time reasonable for the construction of the necessary works, in order to protect the public health or to preserve the waters for other legitimate purposes, including those specified in Article I, to such degree as may be determined to be necessary by the Commission after investigation, due notice and hearing.
All sewage or industrial wastes discharged or permitted to flow into tributaries of the aforesaid waters situated wholly within one state shall be treated to that extent, if any, which may be necessary to maintain such waters in a sanitary and satisfactory condition at least equal to the condition of the waters of the interstate stream immediately above the confluence.
The Commission is hereby authorized to adopt, prescribe and promulgate rules, regulations and standards for administering and enforcing the provisions of this article.
Article VII.
Nothing in this compact shall be construed to limit the powers of any signatory state, or to repeal or prevent the enactment of any legislation or the enforcement of any requirement by any signatory state, imposing additional conditions and restrictions to further lessen or prevent the pollution of waters within its jurisdiction.
Article VIII.
The Commission shall conduct a survey of the territory included within the district, shall study the pollution problems of the district, and shall make a comprehensive report for the prevention or reduction of stream pollution therein. In preparing such report, the Commission shall confer with any national or regional planning body which may be established, and any department of the federal government authorized to deal with matters relating to the pollution problems of the district. The Commission shall draft and recommend to the governors of the various signatory states uniform legislation dealing with the pollution of rivers, streams and waters and other pollution problems within the district. The Commission shall consult with and advise the various states, communities, municipalities, corporations, persons, or other entities with regard to particular problems connected with the pollution of waters, particularly, with regard to the construction of plants for the disposal of sewage, industrial and other waste. The Commission shall, more than one month prior to any regular meeting of the legislature of any state which is a party thereto, present to the governor of the state its recommendations relating to enactments to be made by any legislature in furthering the intents and purposes of this compact.
Article IX.
The Commission may from time to time after investigation and after a hearing, issue an order or orders upon any municipality, corporation, person, or other entity discharging sewage or industrial waste into the Ohio River, or any other river, stream or water, any part of which constitutes any part of the boundary line between any two or more of the signatory states, or into any stream any part of which flows from any portion of one signatory state through any portion of another signatory state. Any such order or orders may prescribe the date on or before which such discharge shall be wholly or partially discontinued, modified or treated or otherwise disposed of. The Commission shall give reasonable notice of the time and place of the hearing to the municipality, corporation or other entity against which such order is proposed. No such order shall go into effect unless and until it receives the assent of at least a majority of the commissioners from each or not less than a majority of the signatory states; and no such order upon a municipality, corporation, person or entity in any state shall go into effect unless and until it receives the assent of not less than a majority of the commissioners from such state.
It shall be the duty of the municipality, corporation, person or other entity to comply with any such order issued against it or him by the Commission, and any court of general jurisdiction or any United States district court in any of the signatory states shall have the jurisdiction, by mandamus, injunction, specific performance or other form of remedy to enforce any such order against any municipality, corporation or other entity domiciled or located within such state or whose discharge of the waste takes place within or adjoining such state, or against any employee, department or subdivision of such municipality, corporation, person or other entity; provided, that such court may review the order and affirm, reverse or modify the same upon any of the grounds customarily applicable in proceedings for court review of administrative decisions. The Commission or, at its request, the Attorney General or other law enforcing official, shall have power to institute in such court any action for the enforcement of such order.
Article X.
The signatory states agree to appropriate for the salaries, office and other administrative expenses, their proper proportion of the annual budget as determined by the Commission and approved by the governors of the signatory states, one half of such amount to be prorated among the several states in proportion of their population within the district at the last preceding federal census, the other half to be prorated in proportion to their land area within the district.
Article XI.
This compact shall become effective upon ratification by the legislatures of a majority of the states located within the district and upon approval by the Congress of the United States; and shall become effective as to any additional states signing thereafter at the time of such signing.
Code 1950, § 62-67.2; 1968, c. 659.


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ARLINGTON, Va. – Leave the euphemisms about playing with an "edge" or "emotion" to Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien and his players.
There are other ways to describe the shift in tenor of the reigning Stanley Cup champions' first-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals: more hits, more scrums, more penalties, more sticks in opponents' faces.
Capitals coach Dale Hunter went so far as to say Tuesday that the Bruins have been going after the head of center Nicklas Backstrom, who returned to Washington's lineup March 31 after missing half the regular season because of a concussion.
"It is crossing the line," Hunter said. "To grab his head all the time is not the right way to play."
Asked Tuesday, an off day in the series, whether he thinks the Bruins are targeting Backstrom's head, Hunter replied: "Oh, yeah."
"If you noticed it, every scrum, Nicky comes out with no helmet on. He gets blockered to the head by (goalie Tim) Thomas the game before," Hunter said. "So he's protecting his head."
Hunter expects the NHL to overturn the match penalty Backstrom got for putting his stick in the face of Rich Peverley at the end of Boston's 4-3 victory in Game 3 on Monday. Hunter said Backstrom "was trying to protect his face," because Peverley had his stick raised.
"He's got to protect himself. If you get a second concussion, you're out a long time. If it wasn't there, if a stick wasn't in his face, Nicky Backstrom's not that kind of player. He doesn't just cross-check somebody in the face. He's not like that," Hunter said.
Capitals forward Troy Brouwer echoed that assessment.
"There's been a couple times where they've gone after his head and grabbed him and thrown him to the ice," Brouwer said. "So I can understand why Nicky is a little bit nervous about when sticks come up."
Boston leads the best-of-seven series 2-1 heading into Thursday's Game 4 at Washington, which Backstrom will miss unless the league rescinds his automatic suspension. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday.
"I'm proud of 'Pev' for standing up on his feet, taking the cross-check to the face, and not embellishing," Julien said during Boston's media availability, which was before Hunter's remarks. "And that's what I want my team to keep doing."
Boston defenseman Greg Zanon said about Backstrom's penalty: "It was high. He definitely hit him in the face. It's not the first time this series somebody's taken a cross-check in the face. There's nothing we really can do. It's up to the league."
Boston and Washington combined for 12 penalties worth a total of 26 minutes in Games 1 and 2.
And in Game 3? That game alone featured 16 penalties worth 35 minutes, and one gesture not likely to be forgotten anytime soon.
After a skirmish involving Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner and Bruins forward Milan Lucic, Alzner put a fist near his own eye and rotated his hand, as if to say, "What a crybaby!"
"I don't think you have to wake 'Looch' up. 'Looch' is always awake. He's a pretty composed guy. But if you poke the bear, eventually he's going to get at you," Zanon said. "You just don't want to aggravate him, because he's going to be aware at all times out on the ice now."
Both teams were definitely talking the talk between Games 3 and 4.
"I don't think we want to be a team that plays after the whistle, but we definitely want to play with that edge and that hunger between the whistles, and sometimes there are shoving matches," Bruins center Chris Kelly said. "That's just hockey, just playoff hockey. I know this group will never be back down from that, but we don't want to be known as a team that after the whistle is getting involved in stuff like that. We want to play hard between and be that big, physical, honest hockey team."
Julien addressed that topic with his players before Game 3, noting that they weren't necessarily playing with as much, well, emotion as they did during last year's run through the postseason.
"I said the emotional level of the series wasn't where I wanted it to be, knowing our hockey club, and we had to elevate that and get a little bit more involved," the coach said Tuesday. "And when we're emotional, and we're more involved, we win battles, and we create more things. So that's what happened yesterday."
And there could be more of the same later this week.
"We expect them to come out hard again on Thursday night," Washington's Brouwer said, "and you should see a very spirited, excited team out of us on Thursday, as well."


text: Guided Self-guided Guided or Self-guided? Self-guided/individual tours You ride on your own, but hotel reservations, luggage transfers, the route, and suggested programs are organized for you. Includes an info package with maps, route information, and hotline number for emergencies or problems. Guided/group tours You ride with a cycling guide and/or support van as part of a group. Everything is planned out: hotels, routes, meals, luggage transfers, sightseeing tours, etc. Guides point out sights, organize activities, and are there in case of breakdowns. Above descriptions are for most tours. Please see individual tour descriptions for included services.


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Regulations for Lakes, Ponds & Wetlands
Multiple regulations may apply to a single body of water. Before proceeding with any work such as aquatic plant control, altering a shoreline, or installing a dock, you need to determine the regulations that apply to your situation.
To see which regulations apply to a waterbody, visit the Map to Lake and Pond Regulations.
For information specific to aquatic plant control, visit the Aquatic Plants section.
State Regulations
Within incorporated areas (e. g. towns, cities), any wetland, pond or lake of 2.5 acres or larger in surface area is designated as a "Public Water" by the Minnesota DNR. To find out if you have a Public Water on your property, contact the local DNR hydrologist at (651) 259-5790.
If the waterbody on your property is a Public Water, you will need to apply for a permit for activities such as removing or applying pesticides to plants, installing aeration systems, dredging, etc.
For more info check out the Do I Need a Permit? section of the DNR web page.
To learn more, check out these topics DNR website:
- Public Waters Inventory Program
- Aquatic Plant Management Program
- Aquatic Plant Regulations
- Wetland Regulations and Permits
If you have questions about applying for an aquatic plant management permit, call the DNR Aquatic Plant Management Permitting Staff in the DNR Central Region Office at (651) 259-5779 or (651) 259-5816.
City Ordinances
Wetland & Shoreland Protection Ordinances
The City of Burnsville has established ordinances to protect wetlands and environmentally sensitive shoreland areas. These ordinances establish vegetation buffer zones and limit construction and other activities near shorelines.
To see the locations of wetlands and shoreland protection areas and learn details about these ordinances, visit the Map to Lake and Pond Regulations.
The full language of the ordinances on the City Code website:
For questions about Wetland and Shoreland Ordinances, contact the City Natural Resources Manager at (952) 895-4574.
Don't Feed Ducks or Geese
To protect water quality, feeding of ducks and geese is prohibited by City Ordinance 6-2-30. Feeding may seem fun, but it causes all sorts of problems:
- Their droppings, which contain bacteria, degrade water quality and pose a public health risk.
- Disease is more easily spread among ducks and geese.
- Uneaten food will attract unwanted pests such as raccoons, mice and insects.
- They begin to expect food and may become aggressive with humans.
- Food such as bread is junk food to ducks and geese. Ducklings and goslings are especially vulnerable to malnutrition if all they eat is junk food.
Fertilize the Lawn, Not the Water
Fertilizer may not be applied within 20 feet of a shoreline of any wetland, pond or lake. In addition, fertilizer may not be applied within any buffer zone of a City-designated wetland.
Read the full language of the ordinance: 7-9-3 Restrictions on Application & Use of Lawn Fertilizer.
Be Aware of Boating Rules
Different ordinances set limits on watercraft use on Crystal Lake, Lac Lavon and Keller Lake. There is also a separate ordinance for other small lakes and ponds (including Sunset Pond). Visit Boating Rules to learn more.


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The Hound of the Baskervilles 5
Classic Crime Fiction
Perhaps the most popular of all Sherlock Holmes stories, The Hound of the Baskervilles combines the traditional detective tale with elements of horror. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the wild Devon moorland with the footprints of a giant hound nearby, the blame is placed on a family curse-and it is up to Holmes and Watson to solve the mystery of the legend. Rationalism is pitted against the supernatural and good against evil, as Sherlock Holmes tries to defeat a foe almost his equal.


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Immunotherapy is a fast growing area of cancer research. It involves developing therapies that use a patient's own immune system to fight and kill cancer. Moffitt Cancer Center is working on a new vaccine that would help early-stage breast cancer patients who have HER2 positive disease.
The HER2 protein is overexpressed in nearly 25 percent of all breast cancer tumors and is associated with aggressive disease and poor prognosis. Moffitt researchers, led by physician-scientist Brian J. Czerniecki, M.D., Ph.D., have previously shown that immune cells are less able to recognize and target cancer cells that express HER2 as breast cancer progresses into a more advanced and invasive stage. This suggests that strategies that can restimulate the immune system to recognize and target HER2 early during cancer development may be effective treatment options.
The researcher team developed a vaccine that helps the immune system recognize the HER2 protein on breast cancer cells. Their approach involves creating the vaccine from immune cells called dendritic cells that are harvested from each individual patient and then used to create a personalized vaccine.
In order to determine if the HER2-dendritic cell vaccine is safe and effective, the Moffitt researchers performed a clinical trial that included 54 women who have HER2-expressing early-stage breast cancer. The dendritic cell vaccines were prepared by isolating dendritic cells from each patients' blood and exposing them to fragments of the HER2 protein. Patients were injected with a dose of their personal dendritic cell vaccine once a week for 6 weeks into either a lymph node, the breast tumor, or into both sites.
The study, which was published in the Dec. 13 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, showed that the dendritic cell vaccine was well-tolerated and patients only experienced low-grade toxicities. The most common adverse events were fatigue, injection site reactions, and chills. The results also showed the vaccine was able to stimulate an immune response in the majority of the patients. Approximately 80 percent of trial participants had a detectable immune response in their peripheral blood and/or in their sentinel lymph node wherein their cancer is most likely to spread to first. Importantly, the immune responses among the patients were similar, regardless of the route of vaccine administration.
Moffitt researchers assessed the effectiveness of the vaccine by determining the percentage of patients who had detectable disease within surgical specimens after resection. The absence of disease is termed a pathological complete response. They report that 13 patients achieved a pathological complete response and patients who had early non-invasive disease called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) achieved a higher rate of pathological complete response than patients who had early-stage invasive disease. Additionally, patients who achieved a pathological complete response had a higher immune response within their local sentinel lymph nodes.
"These results suggest that vaccines are more effective in DCIS, thereby warranting further evaluation in DCIS or other minimal disease settings, and the local regional sentinel lymph node may serve as a more meaningful immunologic endpoint," said Czerniecki, chair of the Department of Breast Oncology at Moffitt.
The study was supported by funds received from the National Cancer Institute (R01-CA096997, P30-CA016520), Pennies-in-Action® and the Henle Foundation.
Source: moffitt.org


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This article is more than 1 year old
TalkTalk, ORG see cash from Mandybill chaos
We failed. Give us money
Never let the facts, or taste, get in the way of a marketing campaign, we say.
TalkTalk boldly promised today to fight disconnection requests in court, at least until after the election. Carphone Warehouse strategy director Andrew Heaney made the pledge on his blog.
The fact that ISPs don't get any disconnection requests, and if they did, they would (rightly) throw them in the bin along with other junk mail, isn't mentioned. Such a request would currently have the legal validity of a request to paint your house pink, scribbled on a fag packet and thrown from a passing car.
Heaney's pledge is only good until "after the Election". If account suspensions are eventually approved, it won't be for a long time, as we discuss elsewhere on the site today.
Maybe Heaney thinks we're all extremely stupid. Or maybe he's just found his audience.
"I'm impressed. Well done," comments Stef Lewandowski, a marketing guru who has advised quango Nesta and the Department of Culture Media and Sport, and is a Cultural Leadership Fellow at the Arts Council-sponsored Clore programme, studying "Accelerated Serendipity".
Pass the bong: "Accelerated Serendipity", apparently
(All those links are there because it's a Friday, and you might otherwise think Stefan is a late April Fool's Day invention. We're not making this up. And we didn't just invent the conceptual graphic, either.)
"Seven Years of Donations Fighting, Brothers..."
Meanwhile Open Rights Group's Maximum Leader, Comrade Jim Killock, was crowing about the success of the appeals drive, launched to capitalise on the ORG's spectacular success (are you sure? - Ed) with the Digital Economy Bill.
The ORG's entire front page was replaced with a "Fuck You" graphic, soliciting donations. This prompted dismay from supporters, according to emails that fell into our inbox.
"Someone - please - say that the ORG server has been hacked by some script kiddies," wrote one supporter. "Oh, for heavens sake are we in the school playground? Who are we trying to attract?" asked another. "Yes, we lost a round - there's no reason to become petulant and offensive."
Killock eventually obliged, but then noticed something:
"Hum guys, since we took the graphic down, nobody's joined up (from 16.50 till now) - that's cost us about £2000* assuming they're not joining because we're not pushing them as strongly," he wrote.
So he put it back up again.
Comrade Jim explained that five people an hour were joining while the front page had displayed the middle finger - which indicates what an impressive mass movement the music industry is up against. That's almost enough for an ORG Flash Mob. The average pledge was £60, which Jim multiplied over seven years.
(Obviously he expects the 'copyfight' to go on... and on... and on.)
"I'm very understanding of the issues people have raised, but a strong reaction - one that will offend some people while making other people agree violently - is required to make people part with their cash."
That's the spirit, Jim.
And people call us cynical. ®


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- From: ICDM <firstname.lastname@example.com>
- Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 17:10:16 +0900
- To: <firstname.lastname@example.com>
[Apologies if you receive this more than once] ================================================================== Call for Workshop Proposals ICDM '06: The 6th IEEE International Conference on Data Mining Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong, China, 18-22 December 2006. http://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk/iwi06/ (Workshop Proposals Due: 10 April 2006) =================================================================== The Program Committee of the 6th IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM '06) invites proposals for Workshops. The Workshops will be held at the beginning of the Conference, December 18, 2006 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The workshop organizers will be responsible for advertising the workshop, forming the program committees, reviewing and selecting the papers, and guaranteeing high quality worthy of the prestige and range of the Conference. All papers accepted for workshops will be included in the Workshop Proceedings, which are expected to be published by IEEE Computer Society Press and will be available at the workshops. The workshop organizers will also have the discretion of editing selected papers (after their expansion and revision) into books or special journal issues. Workshops may be full-day or half-day. A full-day workshop should select 20-25 regular papers, while a half-day workshop should select 10-13 regular papers, from a large number of submissions. The workshop organizers should ensure the presence of authors of accepted papers at the workshops. Each workshop subject will focus on new research challenges and initiatives in Data Mining. The workshops should provide an informal and vibrant forum for researchers and industry practitioners to share their research results and practical development experiences in the data mining field. Workshop Proposal Submission ----------------------------- Workshop proposals should include the following elements: - Title of the workshop - Your name, affiliation, mailing address and e-mail address - A description of the topic of the workshop (not exceeding 200 words) - Type of the workshop (full-day or half-day) - A description of how the workshop will contribute to the field of Web Intelligence and/or Intelligent Agent Technology - A short description on how the workshop will be advertised so as to ensure a sufficiently wide range of authors and high quality papers After the acceptance of a workshop proposal the organizer(s) should: - Create a "Call for papers/participation" for the workshop - Create a Web page for the workshop, the link of which will be published on the Conference Web site - Create a Board of Reviewers (Program Committee) - Review and select papers - Schedule the workshop activities All submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance, and clarity. Those papers selected by a workshop organizer will also be reviewed by the Workshop Co-Chairs for final acceptance. We will provide an online paper submission and review system to support the workshops. Important Dates --------------- - April 10, 2006: Workshop proposal submission due (Please send proposals by e-mail to Workshops Chair) - April 20, 2006: Notification to workshop proposers - April 30, 2006: Each workshop organizer sends out Call for Workshops Papers - July 30, 2006: Due date for full workshop papers submission (at least two reviews for each paper) - September 5, 2006: Final acceptance by Workshop Co-Chairs - September 8, 2006: Notification of paper acceptance to authors - October 8, 2006: Camera-ready of accepted papers - December 18, 2006: Workshop day We look forward to your support in making 2006 IEEE Data Mining workshops an exciting event. Workshops Chair: * Shusaku Tsumoto, Shimane University, Japan E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Note: we will not have a separate workshop registration fee this year (i.e., the conference registration covers everything). For your information, the ICDM '06 conference will be co-located with the IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conference on Web Intelligence (WI) and Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT) for providing synergism among the three research areas. It will provide opportunities for technical collaboration beyond that of previous conferences. The three conferences will have a joint opening, keynote, reception, and banquet. Attendees only need to register for one conference and can attend workshops, sessions and tutorials across the three conferences. We are also planning a joint panel and joint paper sessions that discuss common problems in the three areas.
Received on Wednesday, 8 February 2006 08:17:32 UTC


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Last year, when Coraline was just a few months old, we didn't spend any time outdoors from about December until March. It was too cold or too wet, and I was a nervous first-time parent. This year, however, I'm looking forward to getting her out on a sled (though I'm still a nervous first-time parent, worried that she'll get frostbite or sick). How to dress her for our outdoor adventures has stumped me a bit. It's tricky to dress a mobile little one warmly for the wintery cold while keeping her, well… mobile. (Ever see A Christmas Story? Remember Ralphie's little brother waddling down the sidewalk like a poor bloated starfish?)
When you're dressing a young child for some good old-fashioned snow play, the trick is to layer. A bulky coat won't keep them as warm as a few thin layers in appropriate fabrics, which create a number of warm buffer zones (and keep tiny arms and legs in functional anatomical proportion). Look for moisture-wicking and insulating fabrics like polyester, microfiber blends, fleece, or wool. The outer layer should be, of course, waterproof and easy-on/easy-off if your kiddo is potty trained (or working on it). In addition to the obvious accessories — boots, hat, fleece or wool socks — consider mittens instead of gloves (warmer for tiny fingers) and a one piece neck warmer instead of a scarf, as scarves can pose a strangulation hazard in worst-case scenarios.
Here are some Hudson Valley retailers that sell everything from wool socks to long underwear for our tiny snow people.
- Cabin Fever Outfitters, Rhinebeck
- Hudson Valley Outfitters, Cold Spring
- Kenco, Kingston
Have fun out there, and happy New Year!


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ABOVE PHOTO: President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks to reporters about the fiscal cliff in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
By Jim Kuhnhenn
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A last-gasp effort Thursday to avoid automatic tax increases and spending cuts got off on the same convulsive, partisan tone that marked congressional attempts to resolve the impasse before lawmakers left Washington to go home for Christmas.
With a Dec. 31 deadline for an agreement to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff" rapidly approaching, leaders in each party demanded the other side take the initiative. The new flare-up happened despite a round of calls that President Barack Obama made to congressional leaders by phone Wednesday night from Hawaii before he boarded Air Force One to head home from vacation.
Obama's plane landed in late morning at a suburban Maryland Air Force base, not long after Majority Leader Harry Reid took to the Senate floor to chastise House Republicans who last week opposed Speaker John Boehner's efforts to pass a narrowly crafted bill. Boehner's "Plan B" would have raised tax rates only on the very wealthiest Americans. But the opposition within his own party caucus forced the Ohio Republican to cancel a vote on the bill.
Reid charged Thursday that the House was "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker."
"John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the nation on sound financial footing," the Nevada Democrat said on the Senate floor.
Upon his return from a brief vacation, Obama was facing what has become a familiar 11th-hour scenario — one the GOP says is his fault — and even a stopgap solution was in doubt.
Without congressional action, current tax rates will expire on Dec. 31, resulting in a $536 billion tax increase that would touch nearly all Americans. Moreover, the military and other federal departments would have to cut $110 billion in spending.
But while economists have warned about the economic impact of tax hikes and spending cuts of that magnitude, both sides are increasingly proceeding as if Congress could still act in January in time to retroactively counter the effect on most taxpayers and government agencies without causing economic harm.
The issue has been Obama's first test of muscle after his re-election in November. Obama ran on a theme of having the wealthy pay a greater share toward deficit reduction with a focus on raising upper tax rates for individuals earning $200,000 or more and couples making more than $250,000. In negotiations with Boehner toward a deficit reduction plan of more than $2 trillion over 10 years, he offered to increase that threshold to $400,000, but those negotiations collapsed.
House GOP leaders this week put the burden on Reid, urging him in a statement Wednesday to take up a House-passed bill that would extend current tax rates to all taxpayers, a bill Obama has vowed to veto.
Reacting to Reid's floor remarks Thursday, Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said: "Harry Reid should talk less and legislate more if he wants to avert the fiscal cliff. The House has already passed legislation to do so."
The White House said Obama, before leaving Hawaii, called Boehner, Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The White House statement said the president got an update on the "fiscal negotiations," but offered no detail on who, exactly, was negotiating and whether those talks were getting anywhere.
McConnell's office said Obama's phone call was the first from a Democrat on the fiscal cliff since Thanksgiving.
Last Friday, Obama and Reid voiced support for a proposal that would extend current rates to taxpayers with earnings up to $200,000 and families with earnings up to $250,000. Taxpayers above those thresholds would see their top rates rise. The proposal would have included extended aid to unemployed workers and some surgical cuts to avoid steeper and broader spending cuts.
For the Senate to act would require a commitment from McConnell not to demand a 60-vote margin to consider the legislation on the Senate floor. McConnell's office says it's too early to make such an assessment because Democrats have not put forward a specific plan and have been unclear on whether extended benefits for the unemployed would be paid for with cuts in other programs or on how it would deal with an expiring estate tax, among other issues.
The questions hanging over Washington Thursday centered on whether Reid would offer a specific piece of legislation, whether McConnell would allow it to proceed to a vote on the Senate floor and, if the Senate bill passed, whether Boehner would then call House lawmakers back to Washington to vote on it. All those issues remained unresolved, and success before the end of the year appeared a long shot at best.
Reid said the GOP-controlled House easily could have passed a White House-approved plan with a majority of Democratic votes and a few dozen Republican votes. But House leaders generally avoid such tactics, because they might alienate the Republican caucus and jeopardize the speaker's job.
The House has passed a Republican plan to avert the fiscal cliff, and the Senate has passed a Democratic version. Their deficit-reduction projections differ by hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years.
Adding to the mix of developments pushing toward a "fiscal cliff," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday informed Congress that the government was on track to hit its borrowing limit on Monday and said he would take "extraordinary measures as authorized by law" to postpone a government default.
Still, he added, uncertainty about the outcome of negotiations over taxes and spending made it difficult to determine how much time those measures would buy.


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The Demise of the Mad Men
I don't watch alot of TV, so I'm usually a late adopter when it comes to great television shows. Mad Men is no exception. Although the show is entering its fourth season, I'm just getting around to watching Season 1 and I am falling in love with the show. It reminds me of the Sopranos - flawed characters that you at times root for, at times despise, interlocked in an entertaining drama that centers on the fundamental search for happiness and respect.
So while I'm in the midst of enjoying Mad Men, it was with great amusement that I hosted a dinner with a dozen or so CEOs of advertising agencies and advertising technology start-ups the other night. Last year, I blogged about how Madison Avenue was going tech ("Revenge of the Nerds", I called it). At the time, I thought there was hope that the big ad agencies would evolve to become techno-savvy nerds and help lead the innovation charge. This year, it's a foregone conclusion in my mind that Madison Ave's Mad Men are doomed.
With the rampant digitization of advertising and the explosive growth of performance-based marketing, the nerds are taking over advertising. Advertising innovation is coming from technology-driven giants -- like Google, Microsoft and now even Apple -- as well as start-up companies that are nibbling away at the value-chain, including many of our own portfolio companies (e.g., DataXu, BzzAgent and digital Arbor).
Although many of these technology-driven companies are partnering with the major advertising agencies today, the agency CEOs at my dinner with very bearish on what the future held for the agencies and whether they would survive the New World Order. In their view, there are four reasons for this:
- Wall Street Pressure. In talking to advertising agency executives, you can't help but be struck by how much their EPS targets affect their behavior - and hamstrings their ability to invest. So long as they are slaves to Wall Street, the major advertising holding companies will be unable to undergo the necessary, wholesale transformation required to thrive in the digital age. It reminded me of James Carville's famous quip that in another life, he hoped to be reincarnated as a bond trader so that he could wield some real power. Agency CEOs seem to wish they were Wall St analysts or venture-backed CEOs rather than trapped as holding company leaders.
- CFO/Procurement. Each of the agency CEOs at our dinner bemoaned the fact that "above the line" advertising budgets were now in the hands of the procurement officer and that the power pecking order has become CEO, CFO, CMO. One of the CEOs at the dinner, Wayne Townsend of Click Squared, noted wryly that below-the-line marketing budgets has always been in the hands of the procurement officer. Welcome to the club! The problem for the agencies is that this trend means great creative (the Big Idea) and great relationships (three martini lunch) aren't important to the procurement officer, only hard ROI.
- Lack of Pay for Performance. One agency CEO pointed out that if you look at the revenue per employee at the major agency holding companies, it's a fraction of what it is for premiere management consulting shops, like BCG and McKinsey. In the absence of a pay for performance paradigm (akin to performance-based marketers like Google, who get paid per click or per acquisition), the agencies are forced to operate like a glorified body shop, whether their campaigns move the needle on the business or not. This caps the upside and results in odd incentives, such as worrying more about getting fired than about delivering great work.
- Talent. The best technology and business development talent is not flocking to advertising agencies. They are flocking to advertising technology start-ups and Google, Microsoft and Apple. Over time, the best talent wins in any industry. By this reckoning, the advertising agencies are doomed.
The advertising agencies are thus in a structural box, a classic case of Innovator's Dilemma. Meanwhile, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs smell blood. Young companies are going directly to CMOs to mine their marketing budgets. And marketers are more aggressive about experimenting with new media, socu has Twitter and Facebook, with the help of niche consultants and technology providers.
The only saving grace for the industry may be that their remains great power in the Big Idea. Great creative can still move the needle and provides the direction for all that whiz bang, targeted, performance-based execution. The success of creative boutiques like McGarry and Bowen suggests that niche is still a lucrative one.
As for me, I'll keep enjoying "Mad Men" and continue to invest in nerdy, little technology companies to make them obsolete, historical relics.


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HOUSTON (AP) -- One of the country's most notorious financial scandals came to a protracted legal conclusion Friday as ex-Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling — already in prison for his role in the once-mighty energy giant's collapse — was resentenced to 14 years as part of a court-ordered reduction and a separate agreement with prosecutors.
Skilling's sentence was reduced by 10 years, and his attorneys say it's likely that with time off for good behavior and other factors he will be released in 2017.
Skilling has been in prison since 2006, when he was sentenced to more than 24 years by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake. But an appeals court vacated his prison term in 2009, ruling that a sentencing guideline was improperly applied. That meant a reduction of as much as nine years.
However, Skilling's resentencing was delayed for years as he unsuccessfully sought to overturn his convictions, including appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Justice Department said that in an effort to resolve a case that's gone on for more than 10 years, it agreed to an additional reduction of about 20 months as part of a deal to stop Skilling from filing any more appeals. Federal prosecutors say the deal will allow for the distribution of $41.8 million of Skilling's assets in restitution to victims of Enron's 2001 collapse.
Even with the reduced sentence, Skilling's prison term is still the longest of those involved in the Enron scandal. He was the highest-ranking executive to be punished. Enron founder Kenneth Lay's similar convictions were vacated after he died of heart disease less than two months after his trial.
Skilling, 59, declined to make statements during Friday's resentencing hearing.
He was convicted in 2006 on 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors for his role in the downfall of Houston-based Enron. The company, once the seventh-largest in the U.S., went bankrupt under the weight of years of illicit business deals and accounting tricks.
A one-time visionary, Skilling was vilified by many former Enron employees for denying any wrongdoing.
Former Enron worker Diana Peters, the only victim who spoke at the resentencing hearing, said employees gave their hard work, spirit and trust to Skilling and others at Enron.
"Jeff Skilling betrayed that trust to those employees and played a part in the financial collapse of an amazing company," Peters said.
The U.S. Supreme Court said in 2010 that one of Skilling's convictions was flawed when it sharply curtailed the use of the "honest services" fraud law — a short addendum to the federal mail and wire fraud statute that makes it illegal to scheme to deprive investors of "the intangible right to honest services."
The high court ruled that prosecutors can use the law only in cases where evidence shows the defendant accepted bribes or kickbacks, and because Skilling's misconduct entailed no such things, he did not conspire to commit honest services fraud.
The Supreme Court told a lower court to decide whether he deserved a new trial; the lower court said no.
Enron's collapse put more than 5,000 people out of work, wiped out more than $2 billion in employee pensions and rendered worthless $60 billion in Enron stock. Its aftershocks were felt across the city and the U.S. energy industry.


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Posted by Editor on 02/19/11
On September 25th, in Summerland, BC, the Test of Humanity Mountain Bike Endurance Race will take place. This annual mountain biking event has been designed for riders with beginner to expert abilities, and will be a fun day for the whole family, with individual categories and courses for all ages and abilities. The intention of the race is to raise money for Canadian Humanitarian and provide assistance to the local South Okanagan Food Bank. All financial proceeds from the race will be used to support Canadian Humanitarian and its projects in Ethiopia.
Canadian Humanitarian is a non-religious, non-profit organization that provides orphaned and vulnerable children in Ethiopia with access to health care, education, vocational training and the basic necessities of life such as nutrition and shelter.
The South Okanagan Food Bank is a local organization that provides monthly food hampers to those people requiring assistance. At present there are 9000 people in the South Okanagan that require support from the local food bank.
If racing is not your thing but you feel that this type of event is something you would like to be involved in, then please feel free to contact us by emailing firstname.lastname@example.com and we would be happy to have you join our team of volunteers.
The Test of Humanity's mission is:
• To help break the cycle of poverty in Ethiopia by providing orphaned and vulnerable children with access to an education
• To provide food assistance to those locally that cannot provide for themselves
• To provide an exciting day of mountain bike racing for all ages and abilities
By racing in the Test of Humanity you will be playing a vital role in improving the lives of children in Ethiopia and in providing food assistance to those in need in our local community. So please join us along with race announcer Steve King (the legendary voice of IronMan Canada) on September 25th, for a great day of racing, and know that you will actually be racing .....to build lives.
Online Registration is available at www.testofhumanity.com.
Return to Cycling 4 Women homepage | Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top |


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Shiraz or Syrah is better known as a wine variety so the whole idea that shiraz has been dried rather than turned into wine might be a touch sacrilegious to some.
These dried Shiraz are quite a lot darker than normal sultanas - it's to be expected as they are a red grape. They are also a little smaller in size and have been dried with the seed inside. Tastewise you'll find that they contain all those typical flavours found in shiraz wine - touches of berry, coffee, chocolate, black pepper and violets.
As soon as I saw these dried Shiraz I knew exactly what I'd use them for - a variation of the much loved Garibaldi Biscotti or as Paalo rather sheepishly calls them "squashed fly biscuits". The recipe comes from Ursula Ferrigno's La Dolce Vita and are a simpler version of the traditional treat. Instead of sandwiching the dried fruit between two buttery pastry layers, the fruit is stirred through the pastry itself. It's an addictive combination of sweet fruit and melt-in your-mouth short pastry.
120 grams 00 or plain flour, sifted
90 grams butter, cut into small cubes
50 grams caster sugar
120 grams Dried Shiraz (or currants)
1 egg, lightly beaten
Place the flour and butter into a bowl and rub the butter in using your fingertips. When most of the butter has been incorporated, sprinkle over the caster sugar and continue.
When the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, stir in the dried shiraz (or currants) until evenly distributed.
Add the egg, a little at a time until a soft but not sticky dough forms.
Roll the dough out to cover the base of a 20x28cm tin.
Brush the pastry with the remaining egg and bake in a preheated 180°C/350°F oven for about 20 minutes or until golden.
Once out of the oven, cut into squares and place on a wire rack to cool.
You might want to consider doubling the batch as these will disappear very quickly!


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There's something magical and mystical about sisterhood…an indescribable bond forged by late night secrets, sharing dreams, and unconditional love and support. Sisters share a beautiful, sublime understanding and strength.
What better way to celebrate sisterhood than make dreamy, romantic pictures with the incredible sister duo behind Dannijo? Danielle and Jodie Snyder, pictured here in twenties-inspired pastel Armani, have been creative cohorts since they were young, but in the last five years have created a jewelry making business that has soared among celebs and citizens alike. It's easy to see how sisterhood plays into their success: they clearly value each other and are incredibly close…they even live in apartments one floor apart!
Growing up, I always wished for a sister – someone with whom I could share secrets and giggles late into the night, someone upon whom I could lean when times got tough, someone who could see the dreams I had and help me build them into reality. In the last few years, life has given me the closest thing – my great friend and collaborator, Kelly Framel. Never before had I met someone whose ideas and dreams so closely aligned with my own, and who wanted to stay up late, laughing, drinking champagne, and planning for our future achievements. Kelly has become the sister I never had.
After all, remember, sisters make the best friends in the world.
Danielle & Jodie Snyder, founders of DANNIJO, Photographed in Amagansett, NY August 2013 / Styled by Kelly Framel / Hair & Makeup by Ana Sicat / Location & Props Zach Lynd
Remember what we shot LAST SUMMER? and more from our love affair with photographing SISTERS


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The 2013 AMA Dirt Track Grand Championships will take place at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Ill., May 28-31, bringing the fastest amateur dirt-track racers on the planet to one of the sport's most historic venues.
Ken Saillant (AMA Track Racing Manager) says: "For 39 years, the AMA Dirt Track Grand Championships have crowned the country's top amateur dirt trackers, making this one of the oldest and most prestigious amateur motorsports racing events in America.
"The world-famous Springfield Mile has been the location of many storied dirt-track races, and we're excited to add to that legacy with what promises to be an incredible week of racing showcasing the fastest amateur racers in the country."
Longtime dirt-track promoter Steve Nace of Steve Nace Racing will promote the event.
Steve Nace says: "The AMA Dirt Track Grand Championships represent the top rung of amateur dirt-track racing. We are excited to once again work on this premier event, and we're looking forward to delivering a well-run program that exceeds the expectations of both racers and fans."
The AMA Dirt Track Grand Championships crown amateur and youth champions in individual dirt-track disciplines, including half-mile, TT and short-track events. Amateur racers also compete in mile events.
Tuesday, May 28, will feature amateur and vintage competition on the Springfield Mile. On Wednesday, May 29, youth and amateur classes will compete on the TT course. On Thursday, May 30, youth and amateur classes will race on the short track. Then, on Friday, May 31, the event will close out with youth and amateur racing on the half mile. June 1 will serve as a rain date if needed.
Online entry will be available soon at stevenaceracing.com.
In addition to championships in the individual disciplines, AMA Grand Championships are awarded to the riders in each class who have the highest point totals across all four types of dirt-track racing. The fastest riders in premier classes also compete for the AMA Dirt Track Horizon Award, which honors the amateur racer poised for success on the pro level.
Competitors at the AMA Dirt Track Grand Championships field both traditional dirt-trackers and the latest DTX motorcycles, which begin as stock motocross bikes that are then fitted with dirt-track tires, suspension and other modifications.
For more information about dirt-track competition, see the Racing section of AmericanMotorcyclist.com.


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Francis Chan Helps Plant Churches in Apartment Buildings
The Tenderloin district of San Francisco is one square mile. There are 37,000 people in that one square mile living in 586 apartment buildings. And San Francisco City Impact wants to plant a church in every single one of those apartments.
Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love and former pastor of Cornerstone Community Church, is working with the new initiative, called Adopt a Building. SFCI provides food, clothing and housing for those in the San Francisco area. Christian Huang, operations director for the new initiative, told The Christian Post that Adopt a Building is filling a need in the community that wasn't being met before. It was the "missing component of City Impact," he said.
The idea is simple. First they pick a building and get a prayer team together to start praying for residents in the building. Then a "grace team" is assembled to knock on the doors of every residence in the building.
Those on the grace team ask residents if there is anything they need: food, school supplies, prayer. In a video about the ministry Francis Chan says grace team members are really there to say, "We don't want anything from you, we just want to give."
Huang said many might question SFCI's involvement in this particular district because there is a lot of crime and homelessness, but the real community is represented in these apartment buildings. They house families, single people, and many immigrants who don't have a lot of people "interested in their lives," he said.
Those on the prayer and grace teams are volunteers with SFCI and their sole mission is to be interested in those who live there. Since they already had a large volunteer base, SFCI knew that this ministry was a good place to "equip and mobilize Christians," said Huang.
After the grace team has a list of needs from residents they will come back the next week to deliver what they requested. In doing so, the teams continue the dialogue that they started the week before with those in the apartment.
Chan – who stepped down last year as pastor of Cornerstone Church as he began to question and rethink "how we do church" – says in the initial stages of the ministry, the idea is to start making connections, to ask people if they want to learn more about God and read the Bible. The end goal is to find leaders in the apartment that can begin pastoring a church in the apartment building.
But instead of sending leaders they find in the building to seminary to become pastors, Huang says they will give them Chan's new discipleship curriculum that he is working on. The new curriculum is supposed to "train the average believer to get strong enough so they can make disciples themselves," according to Huang.
Leaders of the ministry believe someone will be found in each apartment building to lead a group of believers regardless of their level and knowledge of theology. "Many believers think they need to go to seminary, but were saying you don't necessarily need it to make disciples," Huang said.
A launch meeting for the ministry took place Sunday night with 65 volunteers in attendance. For now, the volunteers have four buildings they are working in, but they want to start adding more in the future.


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Welcome to the official Xperia™ YouTube channel. Here you can watch the latest videos about our smartphones, tablets and smart accessories. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, so that you don't miss a video - you'll also be the first to hear about our new products, with videos available the minute they are announced.
* Görseller ve İçerik tekif hakkına sahip olabilir
: 03/02/2016: 03/02/2016


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It's no secret that the audio quality of the iPhone's built-in speakers isn't exactly what you would consider to be hi-fi. Sound quality aside, there are plenty of times where even the volume doesn't do the music justice. While you can always go out and buy a fancy dock to amplify your iGadget's sound, artist [Christopher Locke] has a different take on the subject.
For a while now, he has been constructing what he calls "Analog Tele-Phonographers", metal sculptures that can be used to amplify a mobile phone's audio. Built out of steel and old trumpets, his audio sculptures require no electricity, instead utilizing the same amplification technology as the original phonographs.
While the Tele-Phonographers won't make your iPhone sound like a high quality tube amp, they do undoubtedly increase the phone's volume and they are nice to look at. We can certainly get behind this sort of recycling/reuse of old items.
Continue reading to see a quick video of his Analog Tele-Phonographer in action.
[Thanks, Chris]
Continue reading "Analog IPhone Amplifier Made From Recycled Trumpets"


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...making Linux just a little more fun!
"Classic Shell Scripting", Arnold Robbins & Nelson Beebe, 2005, 0-596005-95-4 %A Arnold Robbins %A Nelson H. F. Beebe %D February 1, 2005 %G 0-596005-95-4 %I O'Reilly Media %O http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Shell-Scripting-Arnold-Robbins[...] %P 534 pages %T Classic Shell Scripting
When I first started reading "Classic Shell Scripting" by Arnold Robbins and Nelson H. F. Beebe, the quality of the content inspired me to write a review of this book. As opposed to most books on the subject that only explain and give examples of syntax, this book aims to develop in the reader a deeper understanding and true mastery of the POSIX shell.
The UNIX toolbox philosophy has been (to use a description from Robert Floyd's acceptance of the ACM Turing Award) a staple "Programming Paradigm" for UNIX programmers for several decades. In addition, to developing a better understanding of existing UNIX tools, this book will help programmers understand the ideas behind "pipeline programming": producing programs that take data sources, process the data in a sequence of serially connected steps and output the end result.
For example, the "wc" command provides standard counts of characters, words, and line numbers in a given file. To count all of the non-comment lines in all shell scripts (assumed to end with .sh) in ~/bin:
cat `find ~/bin/ -name "*.sh"` | sed -e '/^ *#/d' | wc -l
This simple pipeline creates a data source containing all lines from all shell scripts ending with .sh in your ~/bin directory. The sed command then deletes any lines beginning with comments and the wc command counts the remaining lines. Commands like this make it easy to report how many lines of code an application has. This is a simple example of what can be done with UNIX pipelines. This book helps the reader develop the skills to write such programs.
The book begins with an inviting preface and draws the reader in, right away. The authors mention that the point of learning shell scripting is to obtain proficiency in using the UNIX toolbox philosophy. This entails using a combination of smaller specialized tools to accomplish a larger task. As such, the book focuses on several main themes:
Each chapter contains background and introductions into the Unix toolbox philosophy. Collectively, they emphasize the need for and eventual standardization of the Unix utilities through the POSIX standard, the main points of which are:
[ Much of the above recapitulates the "Main Tenets" from Mike Gancarz' "The UNIX Philosophy" (Digital Press, Newton, MA 1995, 151 pp., $19.95, ISBN 1-55558-123-4) - another excellent read. -- Ben ]
I found the book to be a plethora of interesting ideas and command descriptions. Rather than describe each chapter in detail, I have chosen to present a sequence of "factoids" containing the "Classic Shell Scripting" content I found most interesting. I should mention that these are just a sample of the types of things you can learn by reading this book.
The built-in command echo is not as universal as you might first think. The BSD version allowed the switch "-n" to disable the printing of a newline after the string:
echo -n "Enter Choice: "
The System V version of echo used another approach for the same purpose: They choose to implement a version that recognized a special escape sequence "\c", so the above would become:
echo "Enter Choice: \c"
The current POSIX standard on echo does not include the "-n" option. On my Linux system there are two echo commands: one in the shell and other located in /bin. The System V behavior can be implemented with a "-e" switch
echo -e "Enter Choice: \c"
The purpose of this discussion is that echo in shell scripts may not be as portable as one imagines. For very simple string printing, this is not usually a problem. For more complicated situations, one should use the POSIX standardized command "printf". To do the above with printf, one would use (as the newline is provided by default):
printf "Enter Choice: "
If a newline was desired, it could be inserted with "\n".
Debugging shell scripts can be a simple as inserting a "-x" in the shebang head of a shell script. For instance, replace
#!/bin/sh -x
The "-x" flag results in the shell echoing each and every command before the command gets executed. Each sub-shell created also increments a prompt, so you can tell at what stack level each command executed. For instance, if your script is
#!/bin/sh cat $1 echo `wc $1`
Given an input set of files (file{1,2,3}) like the following (the $ being the shell prompt)
$cat file1 file2 $cat file2 file3 $cat file3 Finally some data!
the script (degEg.sh):
#!/bin/sh -x cat file1 cat $(cat file1) cat $(cat $(cat file1))
produces for output
+ cat file1 file2 ++ cat file1 + cat file2 file3 +++ cat file1 ++ cat file2 + cat file3 Finally some data!
Each level of "+"'s denotes the stack level in the script. For instance, the first command "cat file1" is at stack level 1 and produces the result "file2". The next command is
cat $(cat file1)
which must execute cat file1 first, before it can execute the "cat" command on the existing result. This "inner" call is performed at stack level 2, represented in the above as
++ cat file1
this result is file2, and is subject to the next cat command given in debugging output like
+ cat file2
with the result of "file3". The rest of the example is similar.
There has been a recent push in the POSIX community aimed at internationalization. As such, you can make your computer speak Italian and display help for the ls command, with
LC_ALL=it_IT ls --help
These are just a small sample of some of the interesting things this book has to offer. If you are a shell programmer who wants to take his/her skills "to the next level", you should consider reading this book.
Talkback: Discuss this article with The Answer Gang
John Weatherwax started running Linux when his undergraduate Physics
laboratory switched to it from a proprietary UNIX system. He was
overwhelmed with the idea that by individual donations of time and
effort such a powerful operating system could be created. His
interests are particularly focused on numerical software and he is
currently working on some open source software for the solution of
partial differential equations. He hopes to complete that project
When he is not working on his various scientific endeavors he spends
his free time with his wife and their 9 month old daughter.


text:
"I think a victory in this fight puts me in line for a title shot for
sure. When I beat Chad Mendes, I expect to be in the title talk." - Nik Lentz
Over the past two years, the featherweight division has risen to become one of the most competitive collectives under the UFC banner. While champion Jose Aldo has been dominating the opposition for a much longer stretch, it took a handful of ready-and-willing upstarts to turn the upper tier at 145 pounds into a shark tank of epic proportions.
There is perhaps no division hotter at the current time and Nik Lentz is looking to kick in the proverbial back door and shake things up. Better yet, the former lightweight turned featherweight contender is looking to do more than just crash the party; he's gunning for the head chair at the main table.
Puzzle Pieces
Since dropping down into 145-pound waters in late 2012, the Minnesota native has been wrecking shop as he's collected three consecutive victories. While winning is ultimately everything on a competitive landscape like the sport's biggest stage, it has been the fashion in which the 29-year-old has been getting that job done that has been turning heads.
By most accounts, Lentz had a successful run as a lightweight as he went 5-2-1, 1 NC over a three year stretch. That said, he wasn't gaining the traction he was looking for and made the decision to redirect his career in hopes of finding room to perform the way he knew he was capable of. As it turns out, the decision to make the drop down a weight class was absolutely the right choice as "The Carny" has been outmuscling and outclassing the opposition in each of his three showings.
"I feel like a new human being at 145 pounds," Lentz said. "I'm stronger. I'm actually bigger than I was at 155 muscle and weight-wise. I work with Mike Dolce and gained about 10 pounds of muscle and lost 10 pounds of fat. I switched to American Top Team and things have never been better. I was just doing little camps down here and my improvement was phenomenal. Now, I live down here full-time and this is the first fight camp where I've actually been living in Florida and I'm in this gym every day. I've made an insane amount of improvement and things couldn't be going better. I'm excited and I can't wait for December 14.
"All of the fights I had at 170 and 155 really don't matter as much to me because I really wasn't putting everything together. I didn't have the right kind of strength training, conditioning or diet. All of those fights were me in a very raw form. Now that I've made the drop, switched camps and teams, I'm putting everything together and doing things the way they should have been done in the first place. I feel great and believe the respect I'm getting is deserved. I'm looking forward to gaining more respect after I beat Mendes."
Those performances had him on the verge of breaking through to the upper tier of the division. While he could have taken another fight to continue his progression and was slated to face Dennis Bermudez at Fight for the Troops 3, an opportunity arose - one many other featherweights would've and have passed up on - but Lentz saw it as the perfect vehicle to catapult him to the front of the line at 145 pounds.
The American Top Team product signed on the dotted line to face former title challenger Chad Mendes at UFC on FOX 9 in Sacramento in a bout that will hold heavy implications in the featherweight fold. Where the Team Alpha Male staple has been heralded and feared in the 145-pound ranks, Lentz has not only stepped up for the challenge, but has let his confidence be known.
During a pre-fight press conference last month, the surging featherweight shook things up by letting Mendes know he was going to defeat him, and his belief in the matter has only grown as the fight has drawn closer.
"I love this fight," Lentz said. "When they called me I was ecstatic. Nothing against any of the other guys I was going to fight, but this is the kind of fight we expected after racking up three wins over the caliber of people I beat. Initially, when we didn't get one of the top five guys, we were pretty disappointed with that. But then karma or whatever interjected and the fight I wanted came to be. The UFC called me up asking if I wanted to fight Mendes and I couldn't say yes fast enough.
"He's still a good wrestler. He still falls back on it. A lot of times when people get those new skills the way he has with his striking, fighters tend to leave behind what they do well. Mendes still has his wrestling but he's become a little more accurate with his striking and his boxing has become a bit tighter. But I guarantee when I get in there and get in his face, he's going to revert back to his old style of how he used to fight and it's not going to work because I'm a better wrestler than he is and I'm stronger and bigger than him. He has no real physical or talent advantages over me. When it comes to the fight on December 14 he's going to be in for a rude awakening. I'm bigger, stronger, faster and I'm a smarter, more technical fighter than he is."
Grind It Out
The bout with Mendes will pit two fighters who rely on their wrestling bases to get the job done – albeit in different fashion. The Sacramento-based fighter is well-known for his explosive double leg takedowns and has used a power grappling game to gain the advantage over the opposition he's faced.
While Lentz has also used wrestling to turn the action in his favor, his is more of a grinding style, where he uses top control to break the fighters he's faced both mentally and physically. Where both fighters in this matchup will have similar strengths, Lentz believes his pace and strength will prove to be a nightmare for the former No. 1 contender.
"I always think I can break someone with cardio," Lentz said. "One of the things people don't understand is that when I get a hold of you…you aren't going anywhere. I'm one of the strongest pound-for-pound fighters in the UFC. A lot of times before the fight starts, people have an idea like they can move and get away from me. When I fought Diego [Nunes], nobody had been able to take him down. It was really hard for anyone to hold him down, but when I put him on the ground, I could just feel him break mentally.
"I think the same thing is going to happen with Chad. Once I get a hold of him he's going to realize that for all the training he's done, he couldn't replicate what I bring to the table. I can't wait for this fight. I'm looking forward to it and it's really going to be my chance to shine."
While the bout with Mendes is undoubtedly a dangerous one, the potential reward for victory provides the ultimate appeal for Lentz. He has his sights set on becoming the featherweight champion, and defeating Mendes would make his case for title contention difficult to ignore. The only man to put a notch in Mendes' loss column thus far is Aldo, and Lentz is hoping the Brazilian phenom holds onto the strap long enough for him to get there and take it away from him.
"I think a victory in this fight puts me in line for a title shot for sure. When I beat Chad Mendes, I expect to be in the title talk. I didn't accept the fight for any other reason than I want to be a world champion. I don't know names or anything, but I know a lot of people turned down this fight with Chad. I already had a fight scheduled and had a sure payday lined up. But when they offered me the fight, I threw that away because I want to be the No. 1 contender and I want to fight Jose Aldo. I want him to keep that belt because I want to be the one to beat him."
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